instructional innovation

This study examined the relationships among teachers’ core behavioral competencies, professional performance, and students’ learning achievement in Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health (MAPEH) in the Department of Education Districts of Ilog I and II, Negros Occidental, Philippines. Using a descriptive-correlational research design, the study involved 38 MAPEH teachers and 190 students from ten public secondary schools, selected through total enumeration and proportional sampling, respectively. Data were gathered using a standardized questionnaire based on DepEd Order No. 2, s. 2015, teachers’ Individual Performance Commitment and Review Form (IPCRF) ratings, students’ academic records, and supplementary key informant interviews. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were employed. Findings revealed very high competencies in self-management (M = 3.826) and professionalism and ethics (M = 3.736), while result focus, teamwork, service orientation, and innovation were rated high. Teachers demonstrated very satisfactory professional performance (M = 3.557), whereas students achieved satisfactory academic performance in MAPEH (M = 84.142). Significant positive relationships were reported between result focus and teachers’ performance (r = .869, p = .028), innovation and students’ learning achievement (r = .797, p = .043), and teachers’ performance and students’ learning achievement (r = .797, p = .043). The findings highlighted the relevance of result-oriented practices, instructional innovation, and professional competence in supporting educational outcomes. Continuous professional development and a one-year competency enhancement plan were recommended to strengthen teaching effectiveness and student achievement. The study aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) by emphasizing teacher development and improved learning outcomes. Its contribution to educational and institutional sustainability lies in supporting continuous professional improvement, instructional innovation, and sustained educational quality in public secondary schools.

Teachers’ participation in professional development is often high, yet it does not always translate into classroom innovation, a persistent transfer-of-learning gap. This study explores how principals’ assertive communication was associated with teachers’ professional competence development in two junior high schools (one public, one private) in Brebes Regency, Indonesia. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used: baseline teacher competence was descriptively mapped from the Ruang GTK platform and the Education Report (Rapor Pendidikan), followed by a qualitative phase with 22 purposively selected informants (principals, vice-principals, teachers, students, and parents). Data were gathered through surveys, interviews, observations, and document analysis, and analyzed using Miles et al.’s interactive model with triangulation. Baseline data showed high training participation (score 4) but stagnant instructional innovation and classroom management (scores 2–3). Four interactional dimensions of assertive communication emerged: directive transparency, dialogic respect, non-blaming corrective feedback, and facilitative advocacy. These were associated with reduced teacher defensiveness and greater openness to interactive and digital teaching, and varied with institutional readiness. The study frames assertive leadership as a dynamic system of instructional communication rather than a fixed trait. Given its two-school, non-causal design, the findings are context-specific; they suggest that sustaining competence requires structured post-training clinical supervision and a constructive feedback culture.